Moroccan winger Achraf Hakimi excelled and scored two successive goals
after his colleague, Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring as Inter Milan beat
Bologna 3-1 in the Italian league on Saturday.
With their third victory in one week, coach Antonio Conte’s team advanced to
second place with 21 points from 10 matches, two points behind leaders Milan,
who face Sampdoria, on Sunday.
Inter, who appeared to have recovered from their shaky form in October,
has won six games and have drawn three times in their last ten meetings,
and have scored 26 goals to confirm their ability to compete seriously for the title.
But Conte came out after the match with a statement from Hakimi, in which
he considered that the Moroccan star, who spent the past two seasons on loan
to Borussia Dortmund, “is still adapting to play in the Italian league,” according to “Reuters”.
“In our championship, there are fewer spaces and the rival teams are better at
determining your strengths,” he added. “I am happy that this performance
increases his confidence.” He has great abilities, “then Conte made a wonderful promise:
” I must make him among the best in his position. ”
Lukaku opened the scoring with his eighth goal in the league this season, his 12th goal
in all competitions, in the 16th minute, although it was not a special goal.
The Belgian striker failed to kick the ball well after a cross pass from Ivan Perisic,
but his reaction was swift and he scored from the second attempt.
Inter Milan dominated the match and after Lukaku missed another chance after
a bad first touch that allowed goalkeeper Okash Skurupski to save her, Hakimi
added the second goal in the last minute of the first half.
The Moroccan player, who joined Real Madrid before the start of the season,
received a pass from Marcelo Brozovic and quietly put the ball past the goalkeeper Skorubsky.
Inter Milan defended their lead in the second half and Emmanuel Veniato narrowed
the lead in the 67th minute, but the Bologna uprising did not last long.
Three minutes later, Hakimi hit the net again after he sprinted to the center of
the field bypassing his marker before slamming into the far corner.
Bologna coach Sinisha Mihajlovic was angry at his team’s performance in the first half.
“I am disappointed, because we always came here to win, but in the first half we did not do anything,” he said.
